almond macaroons

A Passover classic, across Europe. Simple and surprisingly, actually mysteriously delicious, for so little effort. Also gluten free and dairy free.

Lena who does so much of her baking by hand has devised a low labour version. You don't need to beat the egg whites!

"I tried it both ways, and it didn't make a difference. In fact, it is better this way."

INGREDIENTS

3 egg whites

8 oz/250 g ground almonds “But I use 6 oz almonds, and 2 oz walnuts.”

6 Tablespoons sugar

Lemon juice. 1 1/2 tablespoons, or to taste

Almond essence, ½ teaspoon

Blanched almond halves, for decoration

method

1. Beat the nuts and sugar into the egg whites with a wooden spoon, until it firms up slightly. Mixture should be sticky, no need to beat the egg whites till they are stiff. 2. Add lemon juice and almond essence to taste.3. Cover flat tray with baking paper 4. Drop in tablespoons onto the tray, and flatten them out. Leave space between them, they may spread further when cooking. 5. Place half a blanched almond in the centre of each biscuit.6. Bake for 10 minutes in a moderate oven, till they’ve browned, and just dry. Leave to cool. Don’t overcook! You want them to stay chewy.

MELBOURNE TEST KITCHEN

Our test cook Amanda Hampel is famous for her gluten free kitchen, and for fiddling with every recipe to get it just right. She could relax on this one, since it's both gluten free and dairy free from the get-go. She prefers maple syrup to sugar, so she used that, substituting 5 tablespoons of maple for the 6 tablespoons sugar. Amanda didn't have any almond essence on hand, so she used vanilla essence instead. It took a little longer to bake but she found it delicious and "very more-ish indeed!" And a great Passover recipe.

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